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2014 International V8 Supercars Championship
, the defending drivers' champion.]] The 2014 International V8 Supercars Championship will be an FIA-sanctioned international motor racing series for V8 Supercars. It will be the sixteenth running of the V8 Supercar Championship Series and the eighteenth series in which V8 Supercars have contested the premier Australian touring car title. Volvo entered the series with a factory team in a collaboration with Garry Rogers Motorsport and its motorsport arm, Polestar Racing. The team will race the Volvo S60 under the name Volvo Polestar Racing. It will be the first time that Volvo has competed in the Australian Touring Car Championship since Robbie Francevic won the title driving a Volvo 240T in 1986. Jamie Whincup will start the season as the defending drivers' champion after securing his fifth title at the 2013 Sydney 500. His team, Triple Eight Race Engineering, will be the defending teams' champions. Craig Lowndes and Warren Luff will be the defending winners of the Endurance Cup, but they will be driving for different teams in the 2014 Endurance Cup. Luff will instead join Garth Tander at the Holden Racing Team.}} Teams and drivers The following twenty-five drivers—down from twenty-eight in 2013—are competing in the 2014 championship. } TBA |- | rowspan="2" | Dick Johnson Racing | align="center" | 16 | Scott Pye | Ashley Walsh |- | align="center" | 17 | David Wall | Steven Johnson |- | Lucas Dumbrell Motorsport | align="center" | 23 | Russell Ingall | TBA |- | rowspan="2" | Volvo Polestar Racing | align="center" | 33 | Scott McLaughlin | rowspan="2" | Alexandre Prémat Greg Ritter |- | align="center" | 34 | Robert Dahlgren |- | Tekno Autosports | align="center" | 97 | Shane Van Gisbergen | Jonathon Webb |- |} Team changes *Dick Johnson Racing returned the Racing Entitlement Contract (REC) it had leased from Triple F Racing for the previous two seasons. After unsuccessfully trying to secure sponsorship for a 2014 campaign, Triple F Racing returned the REC to V8 Supercars management. *Garry Rogers Motorsport changed manufacturers, switching from racing Holden Commodores to become a factory-supported Volvo team, racing the S60 model under the name Volvo Polestar Racing. The cars are powered by a modified version of Volvo's Yamaha-designed 4.4-litre B8444S V8 engine. *James Rosenberg Racing ended its association with Erebus Motorsport and became a customer of Walkinshaw Racing. After exploring the possibility of securing additional RECs to expand to a four-car team, Erebus downsized to two cars. *Lucas Dumbrell Motorsport scaled back to a single car operation, returning one of its RECs to V8 Supercars management. *Tekno Autosports returned to operating as a single-car team. Shane Van Gisbergen's car being entered under the REC the team owns, with the one leased from Paul Morris Motorsport for 2012 and 2013, being returned and sold to Dick Johnson Racing. *Tony D'Alberto Racing was unable to find sufficient sponsorship to compete in the series, so sold its car and equipment to Walkinshaw Racing, and returned its REC to V8 Supercars management. Driver changes *Tony D'Alberto was unable to raise sufficient sponsorship to compete full-time in 2014. *Robert Dahlgren joined Garry Rogers Motorsport, replacing Alexandre Prémat. Dahlgren had previously raced a Volvo S60 in the Scandinavian Touring Car Championship with Garry Rogers Motorsport's partner Polestar Racing. *Will Davison left Ford Performance Racing to join Erebus Motorsport, replacing Maro Engel. *Dean Fiore, who drove for Lucas Dumbrell Motorsport in 2013, was unable to secure funding to continue racing full-time in 2014. *Russell Ingall was not offered a renewed contract to race for Walkinshaw Racing, and so moved to Lucas Dumbrell Motorsport. *Chaz Mostert replaced Will Davison at Ford Performance Racing. He had been contracted to the team in 2013 before he was loaned out to drive for Dick Johnson Racing mid-season. *Nick Percat made his full-time season debut, driving a car entered by James Rosenberg Racing and run by Walkinshaw Racing. *Jack Perkins returned to the championship on a full-time basis for the first time since 2009, replacing Alex Davison at Charlie Schwerkolt Racing. With the team electing to take Perkins, Davison was left without a seat. *Scott Pye and David Wall joined Dick Johnson Racing from Lucas Dumbrell Motorsport and Britek Motorsport respectively, replacing Tim Blanchard and Chaz Mostert. *Tim Slade left Erebus Motorsport to replace Russell Ingall at Walkinshaw Racing. *Jonathon Webb elected not to contest the 2014 season full-time, focusing instead on his business interests, and his father's Tekno Autosports team therefore did not to take up an option to purchase its leased REC from Paul Morris Motorsport. He will instead co-drive for the team during the endurance races. *Dale Wood, the reigning Dunlop Series champion, replaced David Wall at Britek Motorsport. Wood had previously contested the championship part-time in 2009 with Kelly Racing. Scheduled events The 2014 calendar was released on 23 September 2013. | valign="top" | |} Calendar changes The series will not race at the Circuit of the Americas in Texas in 2014, though the championship is expected to return to the venue in 2015. The championship will return to Sydney Motorsport Park for the Sydney Motorsport Park 400, having last raced at the circuit in 2012. The event will use the Gardner Circuit configuration. The addition of the Sydney Motorsport Park event in August sees the Winton 400 move from August to April. Format changes There will be two formats used for events outside of the Endurance Cup. "Super Street" events will be held at the Clipsal, Townsville and Sydney 500 events, with a pair of 125-kilometre races held on Saturday and a 250-kilometre race held on Sunday. All other events will feature the "Super Sprint" format, with two 100-kilometre races held on Saturday and a single 200-kilometre race held on Sunday, though the Pukekohe event will include an additional 100-kilometre race held on Friday. The Sandown 500, Bathurst 1000 and the Gold Coast 600, which make up the Endurance Cup, will retain their respective event formats of a single 500-kilometre, 1000-kilometre and two 300-kilometre races. The 60/60 Sprint format, introduced in 2013, will be discontinued. A minimum of five races—including the first race of the Clipsal 500—will be held at twilight, coinciding with prime time television broadcasts. The last event held under lights was the opening round of the 1997 season, held at Calder Park Raceway. Rule changes 2014 will see all practice sessions become time-certain, whereby the session will finish after a designated amount of time with no allowance for session interruptions, such as red flags. Qualifying sessions run on the same day as each other will be allowed a fifteen-minute extension shared between the sessions if required. Additional practice sessions will be held at the Winton, Queensland Raceway and Sydney Motorsport Park events. The 2014 season saw changes to the regulations regarding abandoned starts which require an additional formation lap and for the suspension and resumption of races in the case of a red flag. The procedure used for safety car restarts was also revised. Previously, the lead car controlled the pace until the safety car entered the pit lane at which point the lead car could accelerate. The new rules dictated that the lead car must maintain a speed between fifty and sixty kilometres-per-hour until it reached the "Acceleration Zone" located before the control line – mimicking the restart procedure used for the second half of the 60/60 Sprint format used in 2013 – at which point the driver could accelerate and racing resumed. This was in response to several incidents where the lead car accelerated too early on the safety car restart, most notably at the 2013 Austin 400 where Fabian Coulthard, Jamie Whincup and Craig Lowndes were penalised for the infringement. Following the Clipsal 500, where Jason Bright's car had rolled following a safety car restart, the restart procedure was reviewed and changed for the second event of the championship. The Acceleration Zone was lengthened and the lead-up speed was raised to be between sixty and eighty kilometres-per-hour. Drivers were no longer allowed to overtake prior to the control line. The safety car restart procedure was eventually changed back to the 2013 system, with Todd Kelly stating that the 2014 procedure had been difficult to manage for the drivers. Cars will be required to take on a specified amount of fuel in the Sunday race at all events bar the Endurance Cup events. Championship standings Points system Points were awarded for each race at an event, to the driver/s of a car that completed at least 75% of the race distance and was running at the completion of the race, up to a maximum of 300 points per event. *'Short format:' Used for the 100 km races of Super Sprint events (excluding Auckland) and the 125 km races of Super Street events. *'Long format:' Used for the 200 km races of Super Sprint events, the 250 km race of Super Street events and in both races of the Gold Coast 600. *'Auckland format:' Used for the 100 km races of the ITM 500 Auckland. *'Endurance format:' Used for the Sandown 500 and Bathurst 1000 endurance races. Drivers' Championship | valign="top" | Bold - Pole position Italics - Fastest lap |} Teams' Championship | valign="top" | Bold - Pole position Italics - Fastest lap |} Notes: *‡ — Denotes a single-car team. Footnotes See also *V8 Supercars References Category:2014 International V8 Supercars Championship